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At this very moment, your cells are talking. Yes, they are talking. In their own way. They are communicating to you constantly, in every moment, of their world, their life, their existence. Which is your existence as well. But we have been trained to not believe this to be true. We have been told to either see the body and the material world as something sinful and wrong, void of truth and God, or to see the material world as the only part of our existence, limiting our sense of reality and our ability to seek the truths which lie beyond the material world, beyond the scientific approach to matter’s physical reality. We have been given opposing images and told to choose one or the other. And yet the cells are communicating with us. They are telling us their own story. They are trying to break through the tyranny of our mental perception of life and reality in order to show us a different reality underneath, behind, beyond, our sense of things. They want us to pay attention to them, and are crying out in their own ways for us to listen. And to change. They have a mighty story to share with us. An adventure beyond any adventure that we humans, or the Earth as a whole, have ever embarked upon. This adventure has been going on for a very long time. And yet it is just beginning. The time is now to begin a new journey in our perception of reality, in our understanding of ourselves and life, and a new journey in transforming ourselves and the world we are inherently interconnected with in a way that is so profound that when we truly begin to dynamically embody this new way of seeing, feeling, sensing, perceiving existence, well . . . we will awaken suddenly into . . . . Something Else.

The cells are my heroes. Just think about it for a moment. Imagine and feel in your own body the billions, trillions of cells at work in you at this very instant. Yes, they are all at work right now. They are ALWAYS at work, serving us, serving the Divine Soul that leads us, right down into the cells and atoms of our bodies. They are working to keep us alive, to give us the life that we live in every moment. And they do so with utter selflessness, with such a total self-giving that they do not stop to “think” what they are doing or “notice” what they are doing. They are consecrated servers to the Divine within us, to our Soul which is the flame of our being originated from that very Divine Source which animates all of life, breathing through everything, manifesting through all. The cells serve the Divine within us, even as they also serve us in our actions and choices and movements throughout the seconds and minutes and hours and days and years of our lives. They listen to us as we demand, command, all that we “want” or “desire.” They do their very best to create what we signal them to be and do. And yet, there is so much confusion about what we want, just as there is in the world around us, and within us. Our mind and thoughts say so many things (so often contradictory from one minute to the next), our vital emotions feel and express so many other things (so often contradictory from one second to the next!), and the world around us is telling us to be so many things, to receive and embody so many differing images, sights, sounds, sensations. We are a vast ocean of dictators, everything and everyone wanting us to be what it feels, what it thinks, what it sees, what it senses, what it desires, chooses, acts upon. The cells receive all of this. They are constantly receiving all the messages that we as individuals, and as a vastly interconnected collectivity, experience and re-create or express. Our cells become these images of life and repeat these images as long as we choose to allow them to occupy our consciousness – our mental consciousness, our vital/emotional consciousness, our physical consciousness, our spiritual consciousness. They are constantly processing all that we are and become (or rather they are becoming, first, what we are ultimately becoming and being), while also listening, and being guided in their secret Depths, to that Force of Life, that Source of Being which we may call God or the Divine, which is at the heart of everything, and yet also transcends all. The cells are guided by this Source, are embodying this Source, while we enslave them in the limited and narrow perceptions and desires that we identify with. Just as we can only become something new, experience something new in our lives, if we allow ourselves to let go of who and what we think we are, of all our past, the cells can only begin to truly reflect and embody something new if they are healed of all the past impressions that are held within their substance. Unless they can let go of the past and be free to become only what that Divine Influence in their depths infuses into them, they will simply continue to reproduce what is familiar and habitual to their nature, which we are in control of (to a degree). The cells aspire to be free, to be what they really are underneath our mental and vital and spiritual commands and directions, just as we aspire to truly be free within ourselves, but have not yet found the key to letting go completely. The cells, our little miniscule, yet powerful, heroes, hold the key. They hold the key to all transformation on this Earth. The future of humanity and life on Earth is slowly penetrating into our existence through the most persevering and sincere of all workers – the cells.

I stood on a beach along the Bay of Bengal in Auroville, India, holding a container filled with the ashes of my friend Ariela. It was dawn, the sun had risen and was glistening upon the sea with crashing waves pounding the sand, mixing with it, pulling it out into its watery vastness. I sat down in the sand and began to chant the mantra of our mutual spirit-cell-teacher-Guru-Mother, the Divine Mother.

I offered everything in that moment – the years of waiting that her family and husband waited for her final wish to be realized, the years of sitting in that container with me, the journey across the world from America to this special place in India, our true Home, my connection to Ariela, her connection to me, the whole dynamic path of life being unfolded in that moment, and myself, my entire being. I offered it all to the Divine, hoping I was doing something good here and wanting it all to be perfect for Ariela beyond and for the Divine. I chanted the mantra – Om Namoh Bhagavate – and surrendered it all there on that beach in Auroville. I meditated and offered this ash-Matter – once body, yet still Body – vibrating with Spirit Presence of Ariela awaiting, I sensed, some small release in this world in order to better move on in her journey.

I stood up and walked, in shorts and shirt, to the water and began to wade in slowly. The undertoe was immense even at a foot deep. The waves were coming in big and fast, crashing, spreading its mist like some watery being exhaling into the air around. I kept wading carefully into the sea up to knee height, the water swirling and chaotic from the dynamism of the waves crashing before me. I held the plastic bag filled with Ariela’s past and wondered what the right way would be to do this, to release her into the earth’s living Poseidon. I held the ashes and began slowly to release them into the water, chanting more Om Namoh Bhagavate, with as much reverence, respect, and Love as I could. As I continued to release the ashes, one big wave decided to surge forward in a big swell and slap right into my chest and body, knocking me over and into the water, full-clothed, still holding the half-full bag of ashes that were now mixing with the salt-water stew of the sea. I got up semi-dazed and knew immediately she was smiling, and I was laughing. Laughing. It was like a humorous slap in the face, “Noel! Stop taking all this so seriously! Live! Breathe! Smile! Laugh!” Like an ego-check, telling me to let go of all this and everything. Ariela, of course, was and is still with me and is doing work in the great beyond to help realize all that the world of Matter is destined to become and manifest. “No, it’s not about me or her,” I realized. It’s about Something Else. It’s about some great Divine Presence which is working in Matter now, in our cells, in EVERYTHING! The great Divine Mother is in all of Matter, transforming Herself, Ourself which is also Herself, everything, from the depths of Matter and in particular in the little cells in our bodies and in nature. These little cells with big wisdom. A wisdom which is LIVED, which is REAL! Not up in the mind floating about waiting for something below to catch it and try to create it, but down down down in the body’s cellular workings, where the Divine Mother breathes Her living Form and is undoing the habit of ages to bring forth something new. Something unbelievably New.

We must not mistake, it is not we humans who are transforming or can do this transformation in Matter. It is only the Divine, the Divine Force and Power, the Divine Will and Grace, which can awaken and embody the next leap of evolution. We do nothing but by the Will of the Divine, even our fragmented and ignorant will is sourced from the great Will of the Supreme, and so all that we do, think, believe, breathe, feel, sense, all of our movements inward and outward are the movements of the Supreme in His Supreme Action through the Divine Mother’s Supreme Body.

Ariela’s body ashes merged once more with the Divine Mother’s Body, and my own body was given a good reminder to stay present in this body of mine. To be aware in this body, and to surrender everything for what lies ahead.

Do we ever wonder what it is within us, what it is about Life, that seems to yearn? Something deep inside us that seeks and aspires, which is curious and filled with an urge to grow, to know, to experience, to live. It seems to be a movement, a push, or, even

A harmonious collective aspiration can change the course of circumstances.

a fire at times, something which cannot stop. It is the very thing which animates us humans, and yet also gives a certain quality of movement and growth in the animal, in the plant, in the elements of nature, in the atoms, in the motions of the cosmos. We – and by we I mean everything in this universe, upon Earth, and all the Spiritual Realms – seem to be going somewhere. It is really quite obvious and undeniable. We are moving forward, towards Something, even though we may not know at times what ‘forward’ means, or what that great Something really is. It is simple to see in the movement of water journeying downstream, in the eventual blossoming of a flower from a seed, in the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual growth of a child and human, in the progress and unfolding of the many Ages of humanity, even in the very existence of this mysterious something we call Time. Its mere presence is an indication of something that once wasn’t, something that now is, and Something Else which has yet to be, but which is being built upon the substance of all the previous experiences and nurturing moments that have been lived….. as well as those we are having now.

It is certainly the Spirit, the Soul, this mysterious and still unfamiliar Divine part of us which yearns, which sees and knows the Avenue that is unfolding through all the countless multitude of experiences. But with this we can still become, perhaps, too vague, too complacent, and forget to peer deeper into this Yearning, into just how intimate and living it really is in all of Life……

Perhaps when we look more closely at our physical, material reality, we can see that it is also Time which yearns. Perhaps Space is that movement of Time yearning for Something.

We are the Earth’s children. We are the culmination of the Earth’s own immense Collective Aspiration. And yet, we are not the end of the Earth’s fruition. There remains a great urge within humanity, an intense longing to become always something more than what it has been. This yearning is the very evidence, the proof, of the inevitable Future to come. What are we really? Who are we? By what do we and the Earth and all the motions of the cosmos yearn? Towards what? These questions grow still more and more palpable and intense in the hearts and minds of a humanity that is seeking more and more, wanting to Know, wanting to Become, wanting to Live and Breathe Something Else.

In each little seed there lies a hidden urge to grow, to become, to fulfill itself and all the truth that lies within it. A hidden urge which can only move forward, can only progress, whatever the apparent result or outcome may be. That urge, hidden in the atoms, becomes less hidden in the cell, grows in the plant and animal, erupts in the human. The urge is not so hidden anymore, yet we ignore it famously, most abundantly. We sense it, feel it often, then allow it to be overtaken by less important matters, cover it up in all the mud, and all the glitter and activity that seems to be a fulfillment of that urge, but which is not, and can never be. This Urge returns again and again to be noticed, to be recognized for what it truly is, for its real purpose and meaning. It is as if God were knocking on our door deep within us, pushing us along, even carrying us in this great Urge to Be, to Grow, to Live, to Manifest as Something…… Something. Something which perhaps yearns also, but in a new way, a different way than what has yet to be, of what we have yet to feel and live. A Conscious Urge. An Urge which ultimately IS what it urges in each moment, which IS whatever it sees or dreams in its Beingness, which IS whatever it knows without any ignorance or doubt or uncertainty or confusion or falsehood, or even effort. It IS the Effort. The Urge simply becomes what it always was, a delightful pursuit and experience of All the infinite and eternal Possibility which it already Is……but with Total Consciousness of Itself and All.

We are this Urge, this great yearning and Aspiration to be what is within us, which is Everything. We are this Urge in our Hearts, in our Minds, in our Life, in our Body, and even in our Cells. We are the Spirit and Soul in all the little atoms moving, the cells calling and aspiring for something else, something which has yet to be. This Urge is there in our spiritual and material depths, where the cells are always listening. It is perhaps time that we all begin listening as well. Only when we can truly learn to Listen will we begin to discover the True Source of this Yearning within us, and within all of Life.